Joyce Manor - Cody
Another album of infinitely catchy pop punk indie rock from these guys.

And this is a last minute add:

Fury - Paramount
This reminds me of the first time I heard Have Heart, one of my favorite/most listened to bands of the this millennium. Powerful, modern hardcore, with a great throwback feel. The album smokes, and I see myself listening to this a lot.

Here are a couple awesome songs from 2016, where the whole albums didn't really grab me:

I thought this Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam jam was pretty fantastic. Apparently it's the lead singer of a band called The Walkmen working with a dude from Vampire Weekend. Don't know about The Walkmen, but Vampire Weekend is pretty sweet.

Wanted to like the new Regina Spektor album, but it is mostly meh. This song is great though. OK, and Bleeding Heart is pretty awesome too.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

The last couple weeks have brought one of the things I look forward to at the end of each year: albums of the year lists. It's a nice way for me to check out tunes I didn't hear over the course of the year. Each list generally contains a nice little synopsis of the jam, and then a link to further listening. Some gems I am now enjoying are new albums from Mithras, Insomnium, Asphyx, and a band called Crying. Seriously, Crying. My own list will be coming soonish.

Anyway, one thing i noticed in virtually every list I read was that a lot of musicians died in 2016. OK, that's legit, it is a list concerning music over the past year. Makes sense. But the other thing that I noticed in every list is that 2016 apparently has been a terrible year for the world...and then obviously Trump OMG. Just a couple months ago, we had Hillary Clinton telling us how awesome everything is. It was Trump that was apparently painting this dark picture of the world. Make up your minds, assholes.

Well, what do reasonable people with functioning brains think? SPOILER ALERT: we don't think that.

We like to look at the positives.

OK, but first the negative, a big one: Donald Trump is President. That's the reality, pretty shitty.

With that out of the way, let's focus on some of the good things a Donald Trump presidency means. The first thing that comes to mind is that Hillary Clinton is not President. There will likely NOT be a nuclear holocaust with Russia. This is a good thing. Second and third, neither Ted Cruz nor Bernie Sanders are president! Not one of those three shitheads will be the leader of the free world. Objectively, I think that's pretty awesome. And if you are a pro-equality, anti-war dickhead like me, you should agree.

Real talk though: The Republican candidate was Donald Trump. Donald Trump. Democrats and progressives should have been drooling over this election. Many probably already were anyway.

This should be a unanimous vote, or at least a goddamn landslide.

But then how does a Democrat manage to lose? By employing an election strategy that consisted of fucking up in probably the most epic manner ever, starting with (deceptively) presenting the only candidate that is more vile than the other one. And the Russian hacker stuff too, lol. That some WMDs-in-Iraq bullshit. If you were genuinely excited about Hillary Clinton, it might be best if you were no longer with us. At the very least, just shut the fuck up and go back to your seat at the kids table.

Aside from all the fake news, Trump, the hate crime hoaxes (wait, these hoaxes are actually good because that means that the hate crimes didn't actually happen, right?), the presidential election in general, 2016 was actually a pretty goddamn awesome year for me. I'd explain why, but you likely don't care. I'm not sure I do much either.

If you had a crappy 2016, we at HYM Corp all hope that your 2017 is marginally better.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Heckyeahwoman and I discussed it, and we decided we are going to trade in my Dodge Charger for something, likely a vehicle. My first thought was a Subaru or a full suspension fat bike or a nice boutique titanium plus hardtail or a cross bike or an RV or a camper. She was 100% on board with the Subaru. The following words are a quick run through of our search for a new vehicle and the end result.

Current sitch: I drive a 2007 Dodge Charger, needs a little work, less than 90k miles. Heckyeahwoman drives a 2002 Honda Civic, 120k something miles, meticulously maintained. With a beautiful full grown German Shepherd (from a shelter, not a breeder), maybe a baby at some point, and our need to haul more stuff, we decided a Subaru Forester or something similar would be about right.

Quick run through of the vehicles we considered:

We didn't want to spend a shitload, so that meant used, probably 2013 to 2015, less than 30k miles, proven reliability, hopefully not a base model but if a deal came up then whatever. Ideally it would have a roof rack, maybe even a hitch. We both thought a backup camera would be sweet too.

Subaru Forester - took one out for a test drive, wasn't super impressed. Looks cool, but I didn't get the "heck yeah" feeling I did with the eventually winner. Went to the local Chilson Subaru dealership, talked to a turd of a typical car salesman dude. He super lowballed me on the trade-in, and wouldn't budge on the price. When I was getting really close to buying, I even asked him what he can do to help me buy a car today. Lol, nothing.

Side note here about the Forester, we briefly considered a hail
damaged one with a salvage title, but ultimately decided against it.
There's a dealership in Minnesota that has some nice deals. But those
idiots wouldn't email me a better picture of any of the vehicles.

Nissan Rogue - didn't even get to take one for a test drive, as I was turned off by the transmission issues I kept reading about; their CVT seems to blow up earlier than it should. They look cool, similar to a Forester, but are a little better on the bells and whistles to price ratio.

Honda CRV - another one I didn't take for a test drive. That's OK because even though HYW is biased towards Honda (I'm not mad either), neither of us love the look, and there just weren't any available locally that met our criteria.

Toyota Rav4 - *spoiler alert* - this is the winner - a 2014, 23k miles, XLE trim, bought from Eau Claire Ford. It drives noticeably nicer and is a better value than the Forester. Peppy enough for a four cylinder, and it has a hitch and remote start! HYW saw it and agreed. So we took it down to our mechanic for an inspection, and it passed! It is exactly what we are looking for, at the price we wanted. The following is the play by play.

While lurking the internet, I saw the Rav4 on a Wednesday, emailed it to HYW, she approved. Nice. So I emailed the dealership about it, basically just told them my plan: I will test drive it on Thursday evening, if I like it and the price is right, I'll schedule an inspection for Saturday morning, and if it passes the inspection, I will buy the goddamn vehicle. So I drive it, like it, and let them know I will schedule the inspection in two days. The sales manager comes over and lets me know that there is an appointment on Friday morning to check out the vehicle - a lady coming from over an hour away! First thing in the morning too!

OMG!

So if I want to take it off the sales floor and have them hold it, I need to put a $500 deposit down! Sure, sounds good let me give you my credit card. WTF no I am not putting a fucking deposit down.

I called the sales manager early Friday morning to let him know I wouldn't be depositing a goddamn thing, and he gave me the runaround about "I can't hold the vehicle for you, we get dicked around all the time". Told him he's gotta do what he's gotta do. Sure enough, I talked to the sales guy on Friday afternoon and the appointment never showed. No shit.

The dealership is "no haggle", so I was not able to get anything on the price. It seems that sometimes "no haggle" really does mean "no haggle", sometimes not though. But the trade-in value they offered was high enough where I felt pretty good. Actually really good. All we really needed was the sale price minus the trade in value to be where we needed it to be.

Anyway, they wouldn't even throw in a second key. The sales guy even had some guy come over and explain why it's so expensive. Dude even said they tried really hard to get the second key from the previous owner. But when I handed over the single key for my trade-in, they never even asked about a second key. Fucking look me in the eye and say no, just like I did when I told you to throw in the key. So whatever, I left with almost exactly what we were looking for at the price we wanted, while maybe a little salty about the lack of concession on their end.

On the plus side, I have to thank the dealership for not dicking around with my time. Each interaction with them was pretty quick and easy. Even the Business/Finance Manger trying to sell me the lol warranties was painless. Aside from the amateur sales tactics, it was super easy to buy a car from them. Bonus, the dealership offers a lifetime powertrain warranty too.

Odds and ends:
- This was my first time buying a car from a dealership.
- Our credit scores are balling.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Recently I have acquired a couple new articles of clothing. If you are curious about how two expensive pairs of shorts and one free pair of socks are working out for me, read on. If not, check out lemon party dot com. (Mom, if you're reading, do NOT check out lemon party dot com).

My search for the ultimate short that will not reveal ass sweat (while commuting/running errands on a bike) and that is not a gym short, led me to the Chrome Folsom Short. The bad news is that they wound up failing that test. The good news is that they are probably the nicest shorts I've ever owned. Normally $120, I got them for $60 on clearance. Their "olive" color, is actually more of a greyish olive, and I prefer it to the more "olivey" color online.

They are stretchy, feel bombproof, feature solid seam placement for on-the-bike durability, and feel great. Apparently they are liquid resistant too. Though not liquid resistant from the inside, especially when seated on a bicycle mashing up hills like a mofo. I tested them out on a sunny, warm ride to the grocery store, and when I got home, I did notice visible light ass sweat. This was likely present when I was shopping too, lol/crap. It did dry super fast though.

My only gripes are that the front pockets are a little shallow, and that the other colors are still $120 each. I will be looking at their cargo shorts in the nearish future.

Side note here, Chrome makes really nice stuff. I have their Warm Shirt Jacket, and it is warm as hell. The Chrome wallet I have, forget the name, is really sturdy and nice, but the edge sewing got frayed really fast.

A couple years ago, I discovered wool socks, and really, just nice socks in general. While Smartwool Run-light PHD socks are as good as it gets for me, at least in terms of comfort and performance, these Chrome socks are fantastic for cycling. I like that Smartwool sock because of the really cush padding, where Chrome's doesn't have that, but they are foot specific, which is cool.

For cycling and casual usage though, it will be tough to beat this sock. They feel fantastic on my feet. And their socks are priced to move; I think they're running a deal where you can get three pairs for the price of two.

In my search for the ass-sweat-no-show-short-that-isn't-a-gym-short short, I found this particular piece. After the Chrome Folsom short, I decided I would have to go with something in black, due to it's natural ability to (kinda) hide when I'm pitting out (in the pit or otherwise). What we have here is a casual looking short, that comes with a bonus liner! So for $60 I got a light, stretchy pair of shorts AND a really nice liner/chamois!

The shorts themselves are really nice. Only two pockets up front though, but fit great. The liner is dope too - really big and really padded. My first ride in them was awesome. Also, the liner is removable, but I don't totally trust the mechanism that attaches liner to short, as putting on the tight liner when attached made me feel as if I might accidentally tear it out of the shorts. No biggie, I'll wear the liner with other shorts too.

Bonus Pearl Izumi coverage: I have a long sleeve jersey and cycling socks, both really nice. A lot of their stuff screams OBVIOUS ROADIE, while I prefer a more casual look.

Update: I typed this draft about a month and a half ago and then forgot about it. The good news is that I can confirm that all the stuff here has been used furiously and is holding up really well.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

The annual Parade of Homes is happening here in the Chippewa Valley and it is a bunch of homes opening up for visitation by the (paying) general public for a week. Obviously this is something a reasonable person wouldn't give a shit about, but this year it hits close to home. Like, across the street close to home.

For as long as we've lived here, there'd been a tiny empty lot across the street from us, between two normal sized lots. It was so tiny that we didn't even know it was a separate lot. Anyway, the lot got sold sometime in 2015, and in March of this year, ground was broken on a new house. But because it's such a small lot, they had to build up. So now the neighbor to the North has a nice view of nothing but house out her south-facing windows. I'm sure she's stoked (she's not). The neighbor to the South is unaffected. Unrelated: that guy has too many goddamn boats.

The big deal is that OMG a new house is being built in our historic neighborhood, the Third Ward. Apparently that never happens, as all the houses here are already built; we're not a burb or subdivision. The Parade of Homes included this new house, because apparently the contractor tried to mind the Third Ward aesthetic and styles when building. There was even a newspaper story about it, and cars had been driving past to look, lol. Spoiler alert: they did a pretty OK job.

Having no idea about this Parade - what it is really - other than on Saturday (and Sunday, and all week), a bunch of people were parking like assholes in front of our house and waddling over to the new house, we decided to walk on over. Turns out it is a paid event, where you get to go look at new houses and fancy renovations. We told the door dude that we live across the street, so he told us to put on the shoe cover booty things and go in for free. We did.

The house itself was underwhelming. It looked like a cleaner, more modern, un-lived in version of ours. Except smaller, and unfinished. Decent house though. When we left, we walked by a siding sales guy with a table full of literature, talked to him for a minute. Nice enough dude.

Obviously the first question any sane person would ask would be, "why the fuck would anybody pay to do this?!"

Heckyeahwoman tried to brush it off, "some people think it's cool to see what other people do with their houses". Her pretty smile almost made me not hate it anymore.

Not so fast.

Who the hell wants to see what an unnecessary family of four, headed up by an overweight dad with a crooked goatee that drives a huge, underused pickup truck, does with their interior or landscaping? I'm not saying that's the family that will be moving into the house, just an approximation. But am I nuts for not giving a shit about that?

You trying to tell me that tasteless shitheads of the Chippewa Valley are some sort of taste makers here for us? That I should give a crap what other people do to their houses, inside and out? And then pay to see it? Nah, Google free, bruh. Besides, I can shop at Kohl's. I usually don't, but I also don't need to view the houses of those that do.

This went on from like 10am to 4pm Saturday and Sunday, and then 5 to 9pm Monday through Friday. I bet the average Parader spent at least a couple hours on two (2) different days, driving around the Parade and looking at houses. What a waste of time.

"Oh but I really like interior desi"-SHUT THE FUCK UP NO YOU DON'T

You are actually probably unaware of how much you hate your life, and you are expressing that by willfully attending the Parade of Homes, like it's some sort of educational or inspirational activity. There is a dislike of some feature or features of your current domicile, and you have no idea that it's fueling the underlying self hate. Maybe you want a bigger TV. You probably do. Maybe you want to re-landscape the back yard. Your ultimate hope is that the Parade will push you from sedentary to artist. It won't.

That ship has sailed and you're played out.

Bottom line: the Parade of homes is for people that buy pets from breeders, that are psyched about eating at Texas Roadhouse on weekend nights, that still have fake fingernails in 2016, that have intricate and shiny designs on the back pockets of their jeans.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

We recently overhauled our Netflix DVD queue because it was getting pretty barren. Yes, we still receive DVDs in the mail. It's nice - there's no dicking around about what movie to watch; it arrives, and we watch the two DVDs per month. But don't worry, we now subscribe to stream Netflix too (about a year now, and Amazon Prime).

Last Friday's Netflix arrival was Trainwreck, the hilarious comedy from the guy who brought you the other hilarious comedy, Bridesmaids. No idea how it got on our queue because I thought it looked stupid, whatever, so we watched it.

Going in, I wasn't familiar with Amy Schumer outside of knowing she's another blonde vapid celebrity comedienne. Cool. Also, she gets attention for being what Hollywood calls "plus size" or something; that's insane. She's not as skinny as a typical starlet, which is refreshing, but certainly nowhere near plus size or fat. I'd guess she's somewhere between kinda skinny and normal.

It started off pretty funny with Amy's dad (Colin Quinn) comparing extramarital affairs to dolls, light lollage there. But then Amy took center stage, and the first thing I noticed was that her delivery came across like a standup routine, like she wasn't talking with the other characters, instead delivering a comedic routine to them.

I don't think she produced a LOL until two thirds of the way through. She wrote the movie, so I don't know, maybe she generously distributed all the funny stuff to EVERYBODY ELSE.

In fact, John Cena, the WWE wrestler was in the movie, and he was hilarious. Dude had both Heckyeahwoman and I ROFLING during the movie theater scene. Lebron James had a supporting role, and despite not being a very good actor, he was great! He seems like a turd off the court, but his role was a perfect complement to everybody else, and his lines were funny enough. Nice job, Bron Bron.

Overall, it was pretty dumb, which makes me wonder, who the hell would purchase this movie to presumably watch more than one time? What kind of person would that be?

Love, season 1 - short eight show season about two hipsters/degenerates that fall kind of in love. The main female character starts out likable, but by the end is kinda nuts. Some funny parts, would watch season two (not till 2017 or something!)

Flaked, season 1 - Will Arnette is a recovering alcoholic and sprinkles goofy and sometimes geniunely funny comedy in with more serious stuff, like the alcoholism. It was good, but they didn't always nail the comedy/serious dichotomy.

Bloodline, half of season 1 - Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights returns! Only this time as a dude that curses sometimes! And not as Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights. We are only a couple episodes in, but it's pretty good, though some of the plot lines seem far fetched.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

We've been kinda quiet on politics over this horrible election season. Considering the media sponsored candidates, there's not a lot to say other than, "this sucks".

Ever since I've been able to vote, I've voted for the anti-war, pro-equality, anti-racisim, pro-freedom, pro-peace, anti-violence candidate. Well, every year except for 2004 when I voted for John Kerry lol embarrassing. I faltered. And in all these years, I've seen society move in the exact opposite direction of what I'm voting for. That sucks.On politics and punk rock:

When George W. Bush was President, it was impossible to not notice the punk rock community rallying against his completely failed presidency. Eight years of that guy would make any reasonable person pretty pissed off. But what I did not expect was what would come as a result: the widespread, unquestioned embracing of the Democratic party by the punk community. MoveOn, John Kerry, Barack Obama, all received blind endorsement by the loudest voices in punk rock.

What started as rage directed at shitty presidencies, became mindless endorsement of the closest, most visible opposition they could find. But for a community that is supposedly about DIY, the underdog, thinking critically and independently, working hard, and all that other bullshit, they sure do tend to support huge corporations and the government telling them how to live their lives. Is that punk?

Bush got a lot of heat for two main reasons: the war in Iraq and being a corporate lapdog. But the minute a Democrat took office and did the exact same things, it's all of a sudden cool. The current president has killed more non-whites than Bush did, and then he gave his buddies at insurance companies the best gift ever: a law that forces Americans to buy their product. I can't make this up.

Punk rockers, lol.

On Trump:

A lot of people seem to not like Trump so much. Understandably so: he's a loudmouth, he's arrogant, his hair, he doesn't apologize for being white, straight, or male, he might be borderline racist, all among other things. Seems he just can't win with any of the most vile groups of politicians either: establishment Republican politicians and Democrats or "progressives".

But he does appear to resonate with some folks who are sick of 16 years of shitty presidentry, along with what might be described as "tea-partiers". When I say "tea partier", note that I mean Republicans basically, the group the media assigned as (the new) tea partiers. Because that's really what tea-partiers are now, just shitty Republicans. Not that most Republican aren't shitty; they are.

Anyway, the media is painting a picture of Trump as the worst thing ever. Full disclosure here: I don't plan on voting for him (assuming he wins the nomination), and am not a Trump supporter beyond having to choose between him, Cruz, Sanders, or Clinton. Well, and the important fact that "progressives" seem to be getting triggered furiously at the mere thought of him. I do fully support his candidacy being a microaggression for chumps.

Think about this comparison: African American males commit crime at an insane rate. I don't think anybody would dispute that. The reasons for it happening, yeah, that is debated and slightly more complex. But you have folks defending it by blaming everybody but the actual perpetrators; they're blaming poverty, white people, low income, white people, racism, white people, everything. That all can be grouped together and called "the environment" and of course "white people". When Tyrone and Jerome and friends burn a white girl alive, we blame the environment, while excusing and defending these young pleasant lads.

BUT, when Trump says something stupid, he and only he is the worst thing in the world. I am not sure how things can work two ways. The off-kilter blame game kinda undermines the whole thing. Freewill is both a thing and not a thing, apparently, depending on convenience and political leaning.

This is skepticism, basic scientific reasoning and logic all being cast aside for an agenda. That to me is more terrifying than a Trump-Cruz-Clinton-Sanders super mega presidential ticket.

Political fun facts:

There are (a few) candidates, a whole party even(!), running for President that are against violence, war, inequality, government greed, and corporate greed. Bet you didn't know that. There are also those same candidates running locally!

If George Bush did what Hillary Clinton did, you can be sure the media would be hanging that Presidential failure even more than they did. Liberals and progressives would think it's the worst thing ever.

Come to think of it, when George Bush did the same things that Barack Obama does, it was the worst thing ever.

The only things Donald Trump really has going for him are a ruthless marketing team and a seemingly peaceful foreign policy. He is pandering to the same IQ level that Clinton and Sanders pander to, and both groups both seem to be equally open minded: not very.

If Michael Moore was not alive any longer, the world would either not notice, or slightly improve.

I am not a Republcan because they hate me for not being rich.

I am not a Democrat because they hate me for being white, straight, male, and not rich.

other awesome blogs

the counter

where you from, shawtie?

tall man on the loose in tampa area

True story, there is a tall man terrorizing the Tampa area. This weirdo usually hangs out around parks, trying to find pick-up games of basketball - during which, he will grab the ball and maneuver around so that you come into contact with his stinky, naughty bits.

Truly an unpleasant experience.

His signature move is the "bait and switch junk grab". As you're grabbing for the ball, his junk magically appears. In the way of your hand.

Another one of his famous moves is to let the ball go loose, then as you scramble for it, his sweaty ass gets in the way. Of your face.